Summer at the Shack
by divinedragon7
Summary: It was a simple hike until Robbie crashed the Mystery cart and broke an ancient circle, can Dipper clean up his mess without losing Mable and Wendy? A mysterious storm, a dark cave, and a pig that speaks raccoon.


(A/N: Just something I decided to do when I had a few minutes between finals)

Disclaimer: I don't own Gravity Falls.

Summer at the Shack

Chapter one: Cave of Fear

Dipper placed the flashlight into his bag with his other supplies. "Alright, all set. You ready?"

"I sure am."

"Mable, where's your backpack?"

She pointed to Waddles who was wearing her backpack, along with one of Dippers vests and their great uncles fishing hat. "Doesn't he look so adventures?"

"Are you sure he doesn't mind being a pack mule?" Dipper said, in answer Waddles came over and began eating his shoe. Dipper grabbed his shoe and pulled it out of Waddles mouth. "Fine, question withdrawn."

They climbed down into the Mystery Shack. In the lobby Robbie was telling Wendy about his new tight pants. Waddles went over and began bumping his head against Robbie's leg. Wendy leaned over the counter to examine him. "Nice, where you two going?"

"Back Falls ridge." Dipper said while trying not to return the glares Robbie was shooting him from behind Wendy's back.

"Sounds awesome, mind if we tag along?"

"Sure! but aren't you supposed to be watching the Mystery Shack?"

"Soos can do it, right Soos?"

Soos's head popped out of a barrel of wonder pickles. "Right, wait what?"

Wendy grabbed Robbie's arm and pulled him out the door, Dipper was about to follow when Soos grabbed his shoulder. There was a large pickle stuck to his hat and he was dripping, the smell of pickle juice was overwhelming. "Hold on dude, take this."

He handed Dipper a roughly carved whistle. "I made it myself from a dog bone; man did that dog not want to give it up. Take it in case you need to, you know, whistle something."

"Uh, thanks Soos."

"No problem, now back into the barrel of wonders."

The others were waiting for him outside. Robbie sneered at him. "Forgot your teddy bear?"

"Lets just get going." Dipper said.

"You seriously expect us to walk all the way there? That'll take all day, we'll get there a lot faster if we take that." He jerked his thumb towards the mystery cart. They all ran towards it, Dipper dove for the driver's seat but Robbie reached it first and shoved him away. "I'm driving."

Dipper climbed in back next to Waddles and Mable. Robbie floored it and the Mystery cart jumped onto a narrow trail. They pounced along between the trees, Robbie Wendy and Mable screaming and hooting each time the cart left the ground. Dipper and Waddles only tried to keep from being tossed from the vehicle.

At some point in the trip Dipper realized they weren't on a trail anymore. "Robbie, are, you, sure, this, is, the, right, way?"

"Of course it is! I think." The Mystery cart shot off a small hill into a ravine. They screamed as the cart nosedived towards a large rock, it bounced once before they hit. Dipper slammed into the seat and rolled out of the cart, Waddles rolled over him.

He climbed to his feet; Robbie was laying half out of the cart groaning. Mable was now in the front seating laughing. He looked for Wendy; she was sprawled on the ground. He rushed over. "Wendy!"

She groaned. He knelt next to her; there was no blood or missing limbs, that was good. "Wendy, are you alright."

"I think so."

"Move it!" Robbie shoved Dipper out of the way and helped her up.

"Thanks Robbie."

"Hey no problem."

Dipper resisted the urge to kick him. "You know it's your fault we crashed."

"No its not, that stupid rock wasn't there last time I was here."

"You've been here before?" Dipper doubted it.

"Yeah, sure I have. Loads of times."

Wendy took stalk of the Mystery cart. The windshield was cracked and the bars holding up the roof were twisted. Not to mention one wheel was sticking out further than the others. "Oh man I am so getting fired for this."

"Can't you like, fix it?" Robbie asked.

"I'm not a mechanic."

"I just meant, you know, you're like good at everything?"

"Not that good. I don't even think we can get it back. This is so not good."

Dipper saw his chance. "We can tell Grunkle Stan I was driving. He can't fire me, I think."

"You'd do that? Thanks Dipper." Wendy gave him a one armed hug. Robbie punched the Mystery cart, then clutched his injured hand. He turned his attention away from them and for the first time noticed the rock he had crashed into was part of a ring of stones. The largest one marking the outside ring and shrinking as they reached the center. He kicked a fist sized rock until it came free and then picked it up.

"Rocks, so stupid." He stuffed it into his pocket.

Dipper walked among the stone rings, they clearly weren't natural. He thought he had read something about a ring of stone in the book but he didn't want to check while Robbie was there. Mable had taken out a marker and was drawing her face on the largest stone. "Now in a thousand years when the pig men come they'll think I was a god, isn't that right Waddles?"

Waddles ignored her, snout to the ground looking for food.

"This place is lame let's keep going." Robbie said climbing the other side of the ravine. Dipper followed him. When he reached the top he turned around to help Wendy up, Robbie did the same. They each grabbed one of her hands and pulled her up, both reluctant to let go before the other.

Mable rode on Waddles back behind her pack. He seemed to have no trouble with the steep slope. When he caught up with the others Mable rolled backwards off of him. "Ha-ha Waddles is part spider. Hey what's wrong Dipper?"

"Robbie, look at him up there with Wendy. He could have really hurt us with the stunt."

"Awe come on, you scored the major points with Wendy offering to take the blame for his mistake."

"You think?"

"Yeah! And tell you what later me and Waddles can chase him away so you two can have smoochy time." She mimicked what she expected them to do.

"Come on! You know I'll never get to kiss her. But seeing Waddles chase off Robbie again sounds pretty good."

"Then call me Caption Sweater!"

"Alright, Caption Sweater." Dipper said with a bit of doubt. They might have been twins but sometimes Mable confused him, and sometimes he thought she did it on purpose.

They kept climbing until they broke through the tree line. To the North the entire town of Gravity Falls was spread out. It was an amazing view. Mable took a picture for her scrapbook. Robbie looked smug. "See, here we are."

"How do you know this is Back Falls ridge?" Dipper said looking for any feature he could use to find their position.

"Well I mean, just look around you."

They did, all they saw were trees. Waddles began making alarmed sounds. The all turned back towards the town. Further north dark clouds were boiling over the mountains. Robbie watched the storm approach with dread. "Uh, maybe we should like, you knew, head back?"

"I don't think we'd make it back even with the cart." Wendy said, already the northern mountains were hidden behind sheets of gray rain.

Dipper looked around for somewhere they could take shelter. "Up there!"

Further along the ridge, where it meet the mountains was a dark opening. Hopefully a cave, or at least somewhere they could keep out of the rain. They hurried toward the opening, Waddles taking the lead. As they approached it the wind picked up carrying the smells of cold rain.

It was a cave, Waddles stopped at the entrance to wait for them. They were almost there when Dipper noticed that Wendy was falling behind. He looked back just as she stopped. "Come on."

"You know what? I think I'll just wait here, I mean the storm doesn't look that bad and it should be pretty dry here."

Large drops of rain started to fall as the wind blew them ahead of the storm. Robbie pulled up his hood. Dipper walked back to Wendy. "Are you, scared?"

"What? No. I mean I just don't like being underground that's all."

"That's why you never go into the basement!" Mable shouted.

"It'll be fine. I promise." Dipper said.

A gust of wind cracked the trees; branches were broken and flung through the air. Bats screeched through the trees, disturbed by the storm.

"Forget this." Robbie said running into the cave.

"Listen you guys go on I'll be fine out here."

Dipper sat on a rock. "If you'll be fine then I'll be fine staying out here too."

"If dipper stays so do I." Mable said sitting down. Waddles looked between her and the cave before joining Mable.

"Come on, you guys will get soaked if you stay out here."

"So will you." Dipper said. More rain blew in, the clouds slid over the sun.

"Fine!" Wendy grabbed their arms and pulled them into the cave. They made it in just as the true rain started. They stopped several feet in and watched the water cascade across the mouth of the cave.

There was no sign of Robbie but the cave was deep, disappearing into darkness. Dipper pulled out his flashlight. "Mable, get your light so we can see where Robbie went."

"I didn't bring a flashlight."

"What? Then what did you bring?"

Mable reached into her pack. "Glow sticks!"

She began to dance with them. Waddles shuffled to his right then back again. As it turned out Mable had brought a large supply of glow sticks and soon she and Wendy were well illuminated. Dipper turned his light back into the cave. It disappeared into darkness. "You two can wait here, I'll go find Robbie." Dipper offered.

"No, I'm the oldest so I'm responsible for you guys." Wendy said but she didn't look thrilled about going further into the cave. Dipper pulled out his extra flashlight and handed it to her. "Thanks."

They didn't have any problem following Robbie for the first hundred yards thanks to the mud from his shoes. Then the tracks began to fade. It still wasn't a problem until they reached a point where the cave split into three tunnels. Wendy shone her light down each one. "I guess we should split up."

"I don't think that's a very good idea, cause then even if one of us found Robbie we'd still be missing the others."

"Guess you're right, so we just pick randomly?"

"Leave it to Waddles! Go on Waddles, go on boy. Find the weird teenager." Mable said giving him a little push. Waddles walked over to Wendy and nudged her legs. "No waddles, the _creepy _weird teenager."

Waddles looked up at Wendy before walking down the far left tunnel. "I was just called weird by a pig; I don't know whether to be insulted or to take it as a compliment. Meh I'll do both."

Before he followed the others into the tunnel Dipper took out a piece of chalk and left a marker so they could find their way out again, his faith in Waddles was lacking. Without hesitation Waddles took several turns, his nose on the ground barely glancing at his surroundings. Wendy on the other hand kept shining her light in every direction.

The Cave had an oppressive feel; dipper could understand not wanting to venture into it even if you weren't afraid of being underground. It had a dusty, almost suffocating smell. Dipper fell into step beside Wendy. "You alright?"

"Oh yeah fine, I love being trapped under a bazillion tons of rock."

"Well were not really trapped, we can go back whenever we want. Do you think Robbie came this far?"

"Might have, when he freaks out he runs. I hope he turns up soon though. What if Waddles can't find the way back?"

"I've got us covered." Dipper showed her the marks he was leaving at every split in the tunnel.

"Not too bad."

"Oh well you know, it's just something I picked up."

While they had been talking they had fallen behind Mable and Waddles. Now they hurried to catch up to them, thankfully the glow sticks made them easy to find. Both were sitting on the floor of the tunnel eating candy bars from Mable's pack.

There was still no sign of Robbie. "Waddles needs to keep his energy up."

"Sounds good to me, pass a candy bar." Wendy said sitting down next to Mable.

Dipper sat opposite them and pulled out the book, something about that circle of stones was still bothering him. He flipped through the pages until he found it. "Aha, listen to this. _One day while exploring the woods in search of a small creature that continued to steal my left boot I came upon a strange circle of rocks. In my foolishness I removed on of the stones for further study, only to later find it was a small golem. A creature of natural elements given life. I believe it was the one taking my boot. But worse yet I discovered that by removing the golem against its will I had unwoven the circle and unleashed a raging storm upon the town. It did not cease until I returned the golem to the circle and it took its place among the others._ This is it; the stone Robbie took must have been a golem."

"Hold on you think the rock Robbie took was alive and caused the storm?" Wendy said, she reached over and took the book. "What is this thing anyways?"

Dipper grabbed it back. "It's a book detailing the strange creatures of Gravity Falls."

"And you believe it?"

"Listen I've seen a lot of weird things this summer, all of it in the book."

"It's true! And I dated a bunch of gnomes that wanted to marry me but then I refused and they turned into a giant gnome monster and chased us!"

"Alright, jokes over, good one." Wendy said, half expecting Robbie to appear now that she had caught on.

"It's not a joke Wendy, you have to trust us."

She looked at them closely, they seemed sincere. And Dipper had been right about the ghosts at the Dusk 2 Dawn. "Fine, I guess you've earned it. So we find Robbie, get the rock and put it back?"

"That seems to be what we have to do." Dipper said putting the book back into his pack. "Well sitting here won't find Robbie any faster."

They followed Waddles deeper into tunnels. "Does anyone else hear that?"

They stopped to listen. Wendy raised her flashlight shining it further down the tunnel. "Sounds like water."

The tunnel emptied out into a large cavern, there along the far wall was a waterfall. The stale air of the tunnel was replaced by cool damp smells of the waterfall. Dipper shone his light on it, something didn't seem right. They walked to the edge of the small pond under the falls. Dipper grabbed one of Mable's glow sticks and tossed it in. It bobbed in the water before being sucked up the waterfall. The water was _falling_ in the wrong direction. "Wow, that's freaky."

"Hey dipper, check this out!" Mable and Waddles were sitting on a bench in the front half of an old wooden boat. There was no sign of the back half.

"That's great Mable but we need to keep going. Robbie can't be much further ahead." Dipper pointed his light towards the far end of the cavern where several tunnels branched out.

"I bet you ten Mr. Nutty bars he's just wondering around in the dark." Wendy said.

"You're on!" Mable jumped onto Waddles back and they took off towards one of the tunnels.

An hour later they found themselves back in the cavern with the reverse waterfall. Waddles went to the broken boat and rooted around it. "Mable, I am really starting to doubt Waddles tracking skills."

"Aha! Doubt this!" Mable held up a gum wrapper.

Wendy sniffed it. "Yeah that's Robbie's alright. And it wasn't here last time we were. Maybe he'll wonder back through soon."

Waddles lay down near the boat. "Waddles agrees."

"Of course he does, he's been carrying your pack and you." Dipper said taking off his own pack.

"It's not my fault Waddle loves me, I'm just irresistible."

Dipper and Wendy turned off their flashlights to save their batteries. The waterfall glowed softly. Mable took several pictures for her scrapbook. Wendy looked into the darkness. "You know if I can't see the walls it's almost like I'm outside."

Dipper moved to the edge of the pond, it was just illuminated by the light of Mable's fading glow sticks. He thought he could see small shapes moving in the water.

"Dipper look out!" Wendy shouted. A darkened figure stepped towards Dipper, it reached out and shoved him into the pond.

(A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed. Next Chapter: Not gnomes)


End file.
